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| Stay Hungry Stay Foolish |
You might have heard about this famous quote from the speech of Steve Jobs. Frankly, I couldn’t grasp the meaning, when I heard it for the first time. Driven by curiosity to understand the hidden meaning of the quote, I read the biography of the legend. Since it was from none other than Steve Jobs, I was sure it must be deeply philosophical. By the time I understood the meaning, I was already in the mental frame of passionate huger for learning more and more.
Are you aware of the connotation of Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish? There is nothing wrong with saying no. The acceptance of not knowing opens the window of learning and you climb one step towards the goal. The literal meaning is not what it intends to say.
In simple words the phrase says that there is no end of learning, the more you know about a particular subject, there is always something more to unearth. In other words, always be a student and always be curious to explore even if you are at top of the learning curve. Frankly, this simple phrase changed my orientation forever and now I am an avid follower of this mantra.
We are conditioned in various ways to get in the trap of egoistical gratification of knowing all. I have seen several high achievers and successful people often repeating “I Know Everything”. It is not their fault, as they get trapped in the chamber of ego, which in turn makes them blind towards the basic philosophy of learning. This takes them further towards the darkness.
When you close your windows of learning, you simply stop your cognitive growth. The ego keeps you away from learned people and you surround yourself with “Yes Sir” type people who just echo your voice. This leads you towards mental stagnation, meaning you will remain in the same mental status with no room for fresh ideas to experiment. If you are leading a company with a closed mind, you are simply leading it towards the catastrophe of failures.
Do you correlate with the saying “if you’re the smartest person in the room, you’re in the wrong room”? If yes, then you must have the hunger to explore more and more. Stay hungry is nothing but the inbuilt passion to create new ideas, set new goals, and redefine achievable and deliverable with higher standards. It is not about greed, it is all about willingness to explore and know more.
Once you build this habit of consistent learning, you will think and rethink to calibrate and re-calibrate and this will take you on a sustainable growth path. This is not just about business or professional life; this passion is highly beneficial in personal life as well. Your curiosity to know more about your life partner, friends, kids will open you more and help in strengthening relationships.
“Stay foolish” is all about the freedom to do whatever you want to do and remain untouched of critical voices. People might call you foolish for your out-of-box ideas, but if you continue following what your heart says, you will see the day when the same set of people will applaud your achievements.
Your passion to learn along with the zeal to experiment and create something new and revolutionary might get you the tags of crazy and fool. Don’t get perturbed by these tags, it is not your but their fault as they couldn’t understand your perspective. It is foolish to waste time in proving that you are not a fool. Let them be in the echo chamber of self-aggrandizement and you should remain smartly focused on realizing your goals. Someone rightly said that it is not your job to talk, let your work do the talking.
You must build the habit of questioning the ‘normal’ and find ways to solve problems in the simplest possible manner. Dare to make unconventional decisions, as Steve Jobs did when he quit his college to pursue his quest, as Buffet did early in his career when he made some well-calculated investments.
Your passion to learn and experiment will help you shape and re-shape your dreams. Keep on finding innovative solutions, because this is what Insanely Great people do. Just follow your dreams no matter who says what as Steve Jobs said, “The ones who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world are the ones who do.”
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